MANSFIELD, Ohio — Last week Molly Parker posted a stunning photo of a three-tier cake with elaborate icing decorations, along with the caption, “A little something I made for the fam in my free time …”

“It was so typical that I forgot to be annoyed,” says a friend who like others in their church says Molly’s ‘Facebragging’ amounts to a constant wave of self-congratulatory posts about her life. “If you want to learn patience and slowness to anger, do yourself a favor and friend Molly Parker.”

Friends use her posts as a gauge of how spiritual they are feeling that day. “If I’m upset by Molly’s posts, I know I need to draw closer to God,” says one. “If her Facebragging rolls off my back, I’m good.”

Parker often posts family portraits with captions like “Best Kids EVER!”

REDMOND, Wash. — Tom Rhodes is convinced that one day robots will take over the world.
His job: to program the gospel into them now so their reign will be peaceful and perhaps even godly.
“My working assumption is that computers will become sentient and seize control of the planet,” says Rhodes from...

WESTCHESTER — Stu Clark belongs to what is believed to be the smallest small group in America: himself.
“I meet at my house every week in the living room,” he says. “I bring snacks and my Bible, and after some chit-chat I get down to discussing that week’s reading, sharing my...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Astronaut Don Merkley has space-walked six times, repairing broken latches, attaching antennae to the space station — and praying over all the earth.
“I intercede for each continent as I pass over it,” says Merkley, an evangelical Christian. “I have the high ground,...

TOCCOA FALLS, Ga. — Toccoa Falls College was named the Top Christian Party School for the third straight year in Campus Life magazine’s annual Best Christian Party Schools edition.
“Awesome Welcome Week, all-night prayer meetings, crazy-fun dorm games — if you want to get radical for Christ,...

ENCINO, Calif. — William Dunbar, head usher at Encino Open Bible Church, shocked his church recently when he confessed he was maintaining a separate church family in Seattle.
“We were devastated to hear about his other, secret church family,” says his Encino pastor. “To know that he’s...

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Sonya Howard recently visited a small group meeting in Akron that she had no intention of joining. That’s because Howard is a small group secret shopper employed by families to choose a church small group for them.
“People want to avoid messy social entanglements,” says...